After reading this paper, I think it supports what we believe at EII. Mainly this paper supports the inspire piece of our philosophy. A reason many students fail is because they do not believe that they can achieve.
When students (or even adults) find out that I hold an engineering degree, they ask me “Why do you teach?”. My response to them always hits home on the fact that I like to see others finally “get it”. I visualize this as the light bulb moment. I do not know who coined the phrase but most people equate the point of realization as a light bulb coming on in that person’s head. I live for those moments as a teacher and I strive to do what I can to light up my classes every period of every day.
Students who do not believe they can achieve have a harder time lighting their light bulbs. What I have found is that through in-depth questioning a teacher can start to build up a student’s self-efficacy. When this procedure of leading the student to the correct answer from their own knowledge and correcting misconceptions is done repeatedly, the teacher can transform many of these students into believers.
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